07-10.06.2023, first world cup round of this season at Switzerland, Lenzerheide.
The competition started on Wednesday with a track walk. I am already racing in Lenzerheide for the third time, so I knew what to expect, but a lot had changed this time as well. The Lenzerheide track basically offers everything – roots, rocks, jumps, curves, speed, technical forest sectors, very steep and not so steep descents. Every time I go there, I have struggled a lot on this track, because for me it is totally different from all the other WC tracks and really challenging.
Thursday was the first training day on the track. A very difficult and hard day for me. Just before the training started, it started to rain, which made the entire track as slippery as ice. Practice didn’t went well at all, i had no confidence and I just slowly rolled through this training day trying a new line every run and the goal was just to get through the day and stay alive. Thursday night after training I did a thorough analysis by watching my gopro videos and on Friday morning before qualifying I still had 2 more hours to correct my mistakes.
By Friday, the track wasn’t so muddy and slippery anymore and the feeling was already much better after the first run. I immediately found comfortable lines on the first run and the feeling on the bike was like night and day compared to Thursday. Anyway, I started the qualification with a good feeling despite the very difficult practise. The qualifying race went pretty well so far without any major mistakes, until towards the end of the track, coming out of the forest, I hit a large rock with the front wheel, broke my rim and got a flat tyre. I still managed to cross the finish line with a flat tire, but I lost a lot of time. The final result was 145th place with a time of 3.06.54 and +22.13 sec to the winner. I can’t be satisfied with that, but what can i do, this time it went like that and a new opportunity in Leogang in the new week. Stay tuned!